STRAT-ALIKES ROUND-UP

£2,000 - £3,000

LSL SATICOY ONE £2,099 (approx)

Founded in 2008 by husband and wife Lance S and Lisa S Lerman, LsL from Santa Clarita follow a strong vintage vibe that started with the T-Bone. The Saticoy was originally based on the first year of the Stratocaster and typical specs include a nitro ‘cracked’ finish (in plenty of colours), LsL handwound pickups, Wilkinson steel-block vintage-style vibrato, a choice of body woods (swamp ash, sugar pine, alder or korina) and either maple or rosewood fingerboards with 7.25- or 9.5-inch cambers. www.lslinstruments.com

VIGIER EXPERT CLASSIC ROCK £2,275 (inc case)

Known for numerous out-there designs, Vigier’s Expert offers exceptional build and innovation such as the 10/90 graphite-reinforced neck design, paired with hugely modern style. It employs German-made Amber single-coils, a Schaller/Vigier 2011 vibrato with ball-bearing pivot, stainless-steel frets, rear-lock tuners, good finish choice while the Schaller Mega switch offers, in centre position, neck and bridge pickups in parallel, not the usual solo middle pickup. It’s up there with the best. www.vigier.co.uk

MUSIC MAN CUTLASS £2,399

Originally introduced as a sub-£2k ‘Modern Classic’, the Cutlass has increased in price and specification to include, for this year, a roasted maple neck. It’s a typically considered build with both an active buffered output and MM’s hum-cancelling Silent Circuit, not to mention stainless-steel frets. There’s a good colour choice and options include an HSS pickup configuration and a Stealth Black version (see review in this issue). Certainly a modernvoiced Strat-alike, there’s a lot to like here for the non-vintage obsessed among us. www.music-man.com

PRS SILVER SKY £2,549 (inc gigbag)

Reviewed in issue 432, this is the most talked about electric guitar this year. PRS’s alliance with John Mayer has produced a superbly detailed Strat-alike that’s hard not to like. Yes, birds and a reversed/ offset headstock aside it lacks PRS vibe, but it’s present in the obsessive detailing. The vintageinspired voice is married with, by design, more modern finishes and it comes in a new do-it-all gigbag. It’s only the lack of options that separates it from the spec of quite a few other high-line makers. www.prsguitars.com

SCHECTER USA CUSTOM SHOP TRADITIONAL WEMBLEY £2,649

Marketing neck, bodies and parts back in the 70s, Schecter booked its place in Strat-alike history. Numerous builds (by Schecter and others such as Chandler Guitars in the UK) graced the hands of many a big pro and from the Custom Shop models we’ve seen, the quality is excellent. This Wembley was a limited run from 2017; check out the Dream Machine III for classic Schecter-style and, of course, you can ‘build your own’. www.schecterguitars.com

XOTIC CALIFORNIA CLASSIC XSC-1 £2,699

Yes, it’s the same company that makes the pedals and they are extremely transparent about where their parts are made and where they are assembled, using locations in Taiwan and Japan to keep costs of these hand-built products “affordable yet sturdy and roadworthy". The results are superb with up-to-the-minute must-haves – nitro-finished bodies, oil-finished roasted maple necks, boutique Raw Vintage pickups balanced by old-school neck shapes and, no, you can’t have stainless steel frets! xotic.us/instruments/guitars